The UK drinks trade may feel flat on the shop floor, but search data tells a very different story. Our latest Alcohol Industry Analysis shows online demand rose 10% year‑on‑year (YoY), even though wider commentators still talk of a shrinking category. Only 0.63% of searchers ever click page two, so visibility on page one is now the make‑or‑break battleground.
How big is the online alcohol market today?
- Alcohol market size projection: steady double‑digit organic traffic growth gives retailers more upside than topline sales headlines suggest.
- Alcohol market trends: premium search queries such as “wine shop” (+123% YoY) and “craft beer near me” (+166%) are exploding, while legacy staples like “pink gin” (‑18%) fade.
- Alcohol buying habits: long‑tail, intent‑driven phrases (“best red wine subscription”) convert at far higher rates than broad head terms – a pattern echoed across every winning brand this year.
Which alcohol brands are the most trusted?
| Rank | Brand | Trustpilot score | Review volume |
| 1 | Laithwaites | 4.7 | 101 ,179 |
| 2 | The Whisky Exchange | 4.8 | 45 ,051 |
| 3 | DrinkSupermarket | 4.7 | 44 ,359 |
| 4 | Sunday Times Wine Club | 4.7 | 41 ,143 |
| 5 | Master of Malt | 4.7 | 33 ,326 |
| 6 | Beerwulf | 4.3 | 51 ,056 |
| 7 | Virgin Wines | 4.6 | 23 ,889 |
| 8 | House of Malt | 4.9 | 8 ,428 |
| 9 | Beers of Europe | 4.6 | 15 ,556 |
| 10 | The Bottle Club | 4.4 | 23 ,750 |
Which alcohol brands are growing and declining?
Five fastest‑growing alcohol brands
- Majestic +16% (372,814 traffic score)
- Fortnum & Mason +15% (160,598)
- Waitrose Cellar +15% (144,679)
- Laithwaites +82% (135,591) – a four‑place leap
- The Whisky Shop +36% (75,679)
Five biggest YoY drops
- DrinkSupermarket ‑34%
- Beerwulf ‑23%
- AU Vodka ‑25%
- Naked Wines ‑58%
- Winedirect ‑96%
A rising tide doesn’t lift every boat. Brands losing organic share tend to suffer from slow sites, thin category copy, dwindling link equity and many more shortfalls. But, those winning to such an extend typically do so with a full frontal assault on search. Every aspect, on-site and off, is nailed.
- Trust Signals
- UX & CRO
- Tech SEO
- Brand
All reading off the same hymn sheet and playing their part in the battle for share of SERP.
We’ve audited Majestic Wine‘s current marketing strategy to find exactly what this industry behemoth is doing. Read the full strategy tear down here.
Which alcohol brand has the biggest share of voice?
| Position | Brand | Monthly branded searches | Owned social score |
| 1 | Johnnie Walker | 33 ,100 | 28 ,579 |
| 2 | Fortnum & Mason | 246 ,000 | 1 ,318 |
| 3 | BrewDog | 135 ,000 | 2 ,052 |
| 4 | AU Vodka | 135 ,000 | 808 |
| 5 | Naked Wines | 110 ,000 | 665 |
| 6 | Master of Malt | 74 ,000 | 712 |
| 7 | Waitrose Cellar | 22 ,200 | 2 ,180 |
| 8 | Beerwulf | 60 ,500 | 347 |
| 9 | Bargain Booze | 49 ,500 | 355 |
| 10 | The Wine Society | 74 ,000 | 237 |
These numbers reveal where real‑world brand fame meets search performance. A high social following with weak rankings equals latent potential. On the other hand, the reverse signals technical over‑performance ripe for digital PR, and social support.
Alcohol Industry Case Study
Why Laithwaites is growing 72% faster than the market…
Despite a sector average 10% uptick, Laithwaites clocked an 82% traffic increase – a 72% advantage. Their wins come from:
- Clean site structure that lets bots (and users) navigate every page, article and section in two clicks.
- A well‑aged backlink profile built on authoritative wine publishers.
- Intent‑rich long‑tail targeting – from “Malbec mixed case” to “next‑day wine gifts”.
- Best in class mobile load times across key category pages.
Curious how they did it? See Laithwaites’ full market strategy breakdown.
Alcohol Industry Technical SEO Analysis
Alcohol website page speed & mobile performance score
Firstly, Google’s Core Web Vitals update rewards quick First Contentful Paint and stable layouts. But, you must know that the fastest isn’t always the best. This is not the case. In instances an overly bare bones site that struggles to inspire, inform or convert may win on page speed, but likely fall short on many other metrics. The key is to look at these metrics holistically. Here’s how the market stacks up in our alcohol industry analysis:
Domain authority benchmarks
Secondly, we have authority. Authority is about the stature and reputation of your website. Search engines like high authority sites as they’re loaded with trust-worthy signals and likely to provide useful services and content. Authority is measured through a metric called domain rating. The higher it is, the more chance you have to rank for competitive keywords and boost your visibility.
A handful of ‘over‑achievers’ – notably Waitrose Cellar – rank in the top five for visibility with lower link equity. Conversely, BrewDog carries heavyweight authority yet still leaves traffic on the table. Closing those gaps is the low‑risk route to incremental wins.
| Site | Visibility Order | Authority Order | Domain Authority | Organic Visibility | Rank |
| majestic.co.uk | 1 | 8 | 51 | 372814 | 1 |
| thewhiskyexchange.com | 2 | 4 | 57 | 228249 | 2 |
| fortnumandmason.com | 3 | 5 | 54 | 160598 | 3 |
| brewdog.com | 7 | 3 | 58 | 105921 | 4 |
| masterofmalt.com | 6 | 6 | 53 | 116096 | 5 |
| laithwaites.co.uk | 5 | 11 | 48 | 135591 | 6 |
| waitrosecellar.com | 4 | 14 | 45 | 144679 | 7 |
| vivino.com | 14 | 1 | 61 | 56913 | 8 |
| virginwines.co.uk | 11 | 10 | 49 | 66914 | 9 |
| johnniewalker.com | 22 | 2 | 59 | 33091 | 10 |
| whiskyshop.com | 9 | 16 | 44 | 75679 | 11 |
| beerwulf.com | 15 | 12 | 48 | 51354 | 12 |
| themacallan.com | 19 | 7 | 53 | 37180 | 13 |
| drinksupermarket.com | 8 | 27 | 37 | 103357 | 14 |
| thewinesociety.com | 10 | 18 | 42 | 67579 | 15 |
| thebottleclub.com | 12 | 22 | 40 | 64361 | 16 |
Keyword trends from our alcohol industry analysis
High‑competition Alcohol Keywords Analysis
High competition keywords are typically sought after by big brands. We’re talking those with brick and mortar stores & large brand reach. Critically, qualifying intent is more important than ever on these keywords. Providing the correct user journey upon first click is critical.
- wine (27k UK searches, competitiveness score of 80)
- whisky (30k, 59)
- cider (115k, 26)
- vodka (33k, 13)
- champagne (40k, 33)
Alcohol Opportunity Keyword Analysis
These terms have less competition yet high search volumes. As such, they are a perfect battle ground for all brands in the industry to increase their digital reach. Marketing teams across the industry ignore these terms but audiences are interested. With strong volumes and low competition, they’re ripe for the taking.
For challenger and low-visibility brands, these are the terms where you’ll see most success. Concentrate on these and you’ll see traffic and revenue start to grow. For market leaders, these are the terms that have probably skipped your radar. Dig into these and corner the market.
- prosecco (51k, competitiveness score of 11)
- orange wine (8.4k, 9)
- amarone (5.6k, 7)
- rhubarb gin (5.4k, 5)
- pisco (7.2k, 5)
Firstly, align collection pages to opportunity terms. Then, use detailed buying guides for the competitive set to build topical authority.
For all the data behind this alcohol industry analysis, KPI benchmarks and keyword gaps, get the FREE 69‑page report now.
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